I just picked up a 110 bcd sram red carbon crank with no chainrings. I found a nice set of 50/34 T 10 speed Sram red chainrings that the seller says is for the Sram YAW FD system,

My bike does not have the YAW FD but a standard red FD....I can't see there would be a difference but it never hurts to ask.

I was under the impression "Yaw" referred only to the front derailleur, not the chainrings or crank.

These rings will work fine. All the YAW FD does is slightly angle the rear of the FD in when shifting to the large ring. This is to facilitate the large/large combination.

Thanks for the input!

Red has two versions of the crankset - the older set uses the regular 5-bolt pattern, while the newer on has the "offset" pattern with one of the bolts hidden underneath the crank (arm). The "Yaw" version uses the newer pattern. You will know the newer one by looking if the protruding pin (for avoiding chain suck) is aligned with one of the holes.


New version (hidden bolt)

Old version (non-hidden bolt)


New hidden bolt crankset (the 5th bolt is underneath the arm)

The shifting pins and ramp patterns are offset on the new version relative to the old one so shifting if affected if you install one on the other.

Ok! I could not figure what the " hidden bolt" meant. Thanks for this.

I am unfamiliar with these particular components. How does one go about installing/removing this "hidden" bolt? Does it thread into the crank arm or?

There is a threaded boss cast into the drive side crank arm that is in the same plane as the other arms and is the mounting point for the "hidden" 5th bolt. It installs from the back. Campy has been doing this for a long time and my 2006 Chorus crank used the same hidden bolt design.

Instead of the bolt attaching onto the spider's arms, the "hidden" bolt is screwed onto the back of the crank (arm).

And, if you have the "hidden bolt" crank you need a spacer to separate the rings behind the crank arms.

Campy's cranks had that "spacer" cast into the crank arm so there were no extra parts needed.

I was just researching this recently. I have a new BB30 frame for which I needed cranks and really liked the SRAM Red 22. But I use Shimano 11 speed shifters and derailluers and Sram discourages use of their exogram cranks with anything but Yaw front derailleurs. But then I found this...It works! We test SRAM Red backwards compatibility - VeloNews.com.

It indicates that newer Sram cranks work very well with the shimano derailleurs they tested so that was good enough for me; the found also that the new rings actually improve the shifting of older Sram Red derailleur (of which they apparently are not a fan); so that would be good for you.

My new Red22 cranks arrived tonight so we shall see.

The OP has separate crank and rings - not a whole crankset. The problem is IF the crank is the "old" Red with the rings being "new" Red. If that is indeed the case, any advantage of better shifting that the "new" (Yaw version) chainrings can provide will be moot since the ramp and pin timings essential for good shifting is "offset".

I do have the "old Red" crank so I ended up buying a set of the non hidden bolt rings. It appeared the new style rings would have fit but why bother if the original style rings were available?

Ah, I missed that OP had older crankarms. The article I linked do agrees that they wont work with new rings but for different reasons than tne one you site (they tested standard cranks but I would assume the argument also implies to compact, although maybe not the issue with small ring not fitting).


Swapping chainrings
The improvements in front shifting come from a combination of the new Yaw front derailleur and drastically improved chainrings, which have been made significantly stiffer and include improved ramp and pin timing. Why not, therefore, just put the new rings on an old crankset and save some cash?
Turns out that is not such a good idea. The new rings may still be five-arm with a 130BCD (bolt circle diameter), just like other standard road rings, but SRAM now uses a hidden bolt behind the crankarm rather than five independent spider arms. That means that the new Red rings have to be rotated 180% in order to mount up to a regular crankset. The pin that normally sits behind the crankarm to prevent chain jam sits either to the left or right of the crankarm, making it useless.
Further, the inner ring doesn’t fit on a regular crankset at all unless you’re willing to file it down a bit. The tab that is intended to sit behind the crankarm on the new Red crank is a bit too long to attach to a five-arm spider on a regular crankset. Running an old little ring seems to mess up the spacing sufficiently to negate the advantage brought by using the new big ring.
Whether the improvement in shift quality that comes from the new rings is worth the risk of jamming the chain in between the rings and crankarm, and spending time filing the little ring, is up to you.